ABSTRACT
The parameters within which the present discussion is to take place show that the debate on the role of the state is far from being resolved. The legitimate criticism of the inefficiencies and the dampening of enterprise associated with 'big government' has been countered, at least in industrialised societies, by the working man's fear that the withdrawal of the state from its regulatory functions would remove the only institution that is capable of standing up to the corporate putsch. Carey has argued that among the techniques employed in the corporate endeavour to identify interventionist governments with oppression, and the free enterprise system with every cherished value, has been 'economic education'. 1
